Following up on prior reports of investigations into the Kushner family’s real-estate company’s purported use of visa programs that exchange green cards for business investments, the Wall Street Journal indicates the Securities and Exchange Commission is getting involved. Per the paper’s latest coverage, a real-estate company owned and operated by the family of Jared Kushner — President Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor — is under investigation “for its use of a federal investment-for-visa program known as EB-5.”
What is EB-5, exactly? As WSJ explains it:
The EB-5 program offers green cards to aspiring immigrants who invest at least $500,000 in certain U.S. businesses that have been determined to create at least 10 jobs per investor. A green card permits a foreign national to live and work in the U.S. The majority of EB-5 visas go to wealthy Chinese individuals, according to data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In other words, the entry of potential immigrants to the U.S. is all but guaranteed if they are able to invest at least half a million dollars in particular businesses — like those operated by or affiliated with the Kushner family. Of course, the exact nature of the SEC’s probe into the Kushner family’s real-estate company isn’t publicly known, and the agency is still refusing to comment publicly on the investigation. Meanwhile, a Kushner family representative said, “Kushner Cos. utilized the program, fully complied with its rules and regulations, and did nothing improper. We are cooperating with legal requests for information.”
Regardless, the timing of the WSJ‘s latest story is interesting since the White House and Congress are facing a partisan showdown over the continuation of DACA protections for immigrants and Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico. What’s more, the president’s increasingly volatile stance on immigration — especially illegal immigration — doesn’t help the Kushner family’s public case either.
(Via Wall Street Journal)